Kitty Blackadder

Friday, 24 October 2014

HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR: Painting Pumpkins

There's a whole bunch of reasons why the more traditional 'Jack-o-Lantern' carved pumpkin decoration might not be for you:

1) The idea of scooping out pumpkin innards makes you gag

2) You have a more modern/funky interior decor going on and would rather not have a slightly smelly, moulding, luminous orange gourd on the coffee table.

3) You have young children so any craft that doesn't involve various blades is a plus.

4) Or, like me, you are an adult but feel in absolutely no way competent to handle a knife, even with supervision.

So, you can paint a pumpkin instead. For the record, Pinterest is full of this kind of thing, so I'm not claiming originality here, but when I heard that painting pumpkins was a 'thing' now, I was so excited I just had to give it a try! I was going to do this as a fun little DIY tutorial - but it's really pretty self explanatory: step one: get pumpkin step two: choose acrylic paint/spray paint step three: apply paint to pumpkin, that's it really.

Tips:

- spray paint works and will be faster, but also messier and less kid friendly (if that's a factor)

- take a little time trying to choose pumpkins with even surfaces. Lumps and bumps are fine, but for a nice finish, avoid ones with coarse patches on them.

-You may want to prime your pumpkin first to help paint stick to it, and also to help paler colours cover it more easily - grab some gesso to do this. I heartily recommend this one from The Works over any more expensive kind. (Also, I used the paint from here for my entire degree and it was great - and a total bargain!)

- You may want to draw your design onto your pumpkin first, or at least mark out a rough guide. If you do this, be careful what you use - something like pencil would be best really. You don't want soluble ink that will run and mix in with the paint as you apply it, and you also don't want any really strong markings that are going to shine through paler colours of paint.

Design sketched lightly on with a brown coloured pencil

- If you really want these to last a while, or you're putting them outside I'd advise using some varnish. Aerosol ones are generally best for giving something a light coating like this, but be aware that it's best to do a few light coats rather than one big thick coat, as many varnishes can leave an orangey/yellow build up if applied like this.

- There's really no need to use good, fancy brushes for this, but having a variety of sizes on hand may make life easier.

- Also, in case you're not familiar with acrylic paint; it's water based but it will really stick to fabric and can be a nightmare to get out, so old clothes on, and carrier bags down to protect the table (see mum, I was being careful with the paint)

Three of the grubbiest paint brushes you've ever seen, and the pencil I used for marking my designs on.

It took me ages to decide what designs to do; there are so many awesome looking ones online (honestly, be careful, you can lose yourself for hours looking at them!!), in the end I decided to go for a kind of contrasting monochrome duo and a solid bronze looking pumpkin.

The monochrome I like because I think it looks quite Halloweeny, but at the same time not garish. I think these would be great sitting on the coffee table or even at work, at reception or whatever - it's really a twist on a classic.

The beginnings of the stripey pumpkin.

The horizontal stripes were really a lot easier to do, as obviously you're just following the natural ridges in the pumpkin. The horizontal zig zags are easier to get worked up over - there are so many perfect looking ones online (of course, isn't there always) where every zig and zag is the exact same size and angle, but honestly, I think as long as you're relatively careful to line up the erm, lines, then the overall effect is still pretty good. I'm happy with mine anyway.

I went for just the solid metallic, bronzey looking one to kind of keep some of that pumpkin colouring going in the set, but again, give it a more modern look. I really like it - plus it was super fast to do! I feel like it really completes the set having this one there, and I'm glad I decided not to go for another monochrome design.

And so this is the awesome Halloween DIY I've discovered this year. I already have a million ideas for other ones I'd like to do - but I think it's driving my mum mad having the kitchen table look like a pumpkin patch (sorry mum, moving out soon, promise!!). What would you paint on your pumpkin?